A third person has died after police stormed a Sydney cafe this afternoon to bring an end to a 16 hour siege.
Police have confirmed that the dead include a 34-year-old man, a 38-year-old woman and another man who is thought to be gunman Sheikh Man Haron Monis.
Channel Nine have reported that the gunman killed one of the hostages before police swooped.
The siege came to an end after what sounded like a sustained exchange of gunfire could be heard from the building soon after the hostages fled with their arms aloft just after 2am local time.
New South Wales Police confirmed the end of the incident in a Tweet: “Sydney siege is over. More details to follow.”
One hospital in the city said it was treating a woman for gunshot wounds to the leg.
The end came soon after the hostage taker was named as self-styled Muslim cleric Man Haron Monis, who recently attracted attention by writing offensive letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
He was sentenced to 300 hours of community service for writing the letters and was also banned in 2010 from writing similar “letters of condolence” to the families of British soldiers killed in that conflict.
It is believed Monis was on bail after he was arrested earlier this year over sexual assault allegations stemming from 2002. He was also reportedly charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife.
His former lawyer said he believed he was acting alone and was not part of a terrorist conspiracy.
Manny Conditsis told the ABC: “This is a one-off random individual. It’s not a concerted terrorism event or act.
“It’s a damaged goods individual who’s done something outrageous.
“His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness.”
As the siege came to an end, one hostage with blood on her bare foot could be seen being carried from the building in tears by armed officers.
The ABC reported a number of people were rushed to waiting ambulances, though it was not clear what injuries they suffered, if any.
Bomb disposal officers in protective gear were also seen entering the building and a bomb disposal robot was deployed.
Earlier Chris Reason, a senior journalist at Seven News, which has its main Sydney newsroom across the plaza from the Lindt Chocolat Cafe, said he believed he could see the man inside carrying a pump-action shotgun.
Five people fled earlier in the siege, which began during morning rush hour at around 9.45am local time (10.45pm on Sunday UK time).
The first three ran out of the cafe in Martin Place six hours into the crisis and two women sprinted from a fire exit into the arms of waiting police shortly afterwards. Both women were wearing aprons with the Lindt chocolate logo, indicating they were cafe employees.
Earlier, two people – apparently hostages – held up a flag at the cafe window with an Islamic declaration of faith on it.
As the siege ended major hospitals around inner Sydney began receiving patients, but police were unable immediately to confirm the total number of injured.
Two women, believed to have been hostages, were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital.
“We have a woman in her 40s who came in about an hour ago, she came in first, she has a gunshot wound to the leg and she is in a serious but stable condition,” a spokeswoman said at about 4am local time.
A 39-year-old police officer was treated at the same hospital for a gunshot graze to the cheek, while a 30-year-old woman was brought from Martin Place and was in a stable condition.
The nature of her injuries was not known, although she was not shot, the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for St Vincent’s Hospital in inner city Darlinghurst confirmed that hospital had not yet taken in any patients other than one man who was delivered several hours ago.
He was one of the first hostages to escape the siege and is in a “satisfactory” condition.
Television footage showed a woman on a stretcher being taken into Royal Prince Alfred hospital in the inner western Sydney suburb of Camperdown. Paramedics appeared to be treating her with breathing apparatus but her condition is not known.
Speaking to reporters in Poole, Prime Minister David Cameron said the hostage situation in Sydney demonstrated the risk from Islamic extremists across the world.
“It is obviously very concerning, what has taken place, albeit on the other side of the world but in a country very close to our hearts, and it is a reminder of the threat we face from Islamic extremist terror,” he said.